[The Dumpster]

Over on the main page, we are about to seriously derail a thread on the subject of the merits of Ronald Reagan. I've been here long enough that I can feel it coming.

I also know that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that polices the main page will delete all the political stuff, so I wanted to set up this forum for us to bring this important discussion here.

Well, was he, or wasn't he? I vote, resoundingly, YES!! Reagan is the reason I don't have to explain to Little Dumpster what "nuclear winter" means, and for those of you who grew up during the Cold War, like I did, that is the political equivalent of discovering the cure for polio, if not cancer.

I know Reagan wasn't perfect, but he was a principled man, and I believe he left this country a lot better off than he found it. Of how many other recent Presidents can that be said?

[The Big Wiper]

I have posted before on this site that I think Reagan was the best President of the 20th Century. He understood that when our enemies perceive us to lack resolve militarily and engage in appeasement, as world governments did between the World Wars towards Hitler, peace is not possible, and war is inevitable.

For bringing down the Soviet Union alone, I salute him. I did not agree with everything he did on every issue, but he also got it right when he brought down the confiscatory tax rates to something people could live with, allowing them to plan for the future and maintain their dreams of being upwardly mobile.

He was, in short, a fiscal conservative and understood the use of the military as no one has before or since. I voted for him twice proudly.

[DungDaddy]

TBW, I agree, but I often note phrase "of the 20th Century." Do you mean that there was a better president in the previous centuries? Who? Why?

[Thunderbox]

Thatcher and Reagan made a difference that`s for sure, even though you you guys were not really helpful in our problem with Argentina and the Falklands.

But we`re out there with you in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We need our empire back.

By the way, I know a bit about Iraq and its shitters,worked there for 2 years during the Iraq/Iran war....... great people, but they never let us into the shelters when the Iranians were bombing Baghdad!

[The Big Wiper]

DungDaddy: I used the phrase 20th Century because that is my frame of reference while alive, as well as that of my parents and grandparents. I've gotten a lot of feedback from all of them over the years on the other Presidents of the past century.

I have only the history books for the 19th Century. Perhaps there was not a better President during that century than Reagan was during the most recent. But that's the reason I qualified my statement slightly.

[Double Flush]

Over on the main page, we are about to seriously derail a thread on the subject of the merits of Ronald Reagan. I've been here long enough that I can feel it coming.

Done. Derailed. Already over. Etcetera.

I knew we couldn't leave this one alone. I'm 19, so I can't really say much, because I have no opinion of Reagan. I felt a sense of respect just the same as (hopefully) every other American during his funeral, however.

[The Dumpster]

We need our empire back.

The British should run the world. They are the only empire-builders in history who consistently left the colonies better off than they found them. This is because of three things:

1. The English language.

2. The Parliamentary system of government.

3. (Most importantly) The Common Law. No other political system in history--WITHOUT EXCEPTION--has been sucessfully transplanted into other cultures, without force.

Thanks, John Bull!

[The Big Wiper]

I think the British Commonwealth of Nations is a tribute to the stability that accrued to former colonies because of their participation in the British Empire. It was primarily based on trade, and America has benefited from the rule of law that has prevailed in such countries as Canada and Australia.

Compare this to the bloody reign of The Third Reich and The Soviet Empire under Hitler and Stalin.

[The Dumpster]

Welcome to the forums, DungDaddy!

Back on topic, I agree with TBW that Reagan was a success, not just with foreign policy, but at home. Even though he never had a Congress of his same political party, unlike our present President (a luxury, incidentally, afforded for this length of time to only one other twice-elected Republican President (Grant)), Reagan managed to pull together a working conservative coalition within the Congress to pass the tax reforms that have caused people to take prosperity for granted for an entire generation.

My grandparents used to tell me that "you couldn't really appreciate FDR unless you remember what it was like before he came along." That may be true, but I would suggest the same thing about the Gipper.

[C Everett Poop]

Reagan singlehandedly restored the confidence and pride in America that was eroded by Johnson, Nixon, Ford and destroyed by that cum-dumpster Carter. He ended the Soviet Union by telling Gorbachev in Keflavic that we would develop missile interceptors whether they liked it or not. The Iranians released the hostages the day he was inaugurated because they knew that their country was hours away from being bombed into the stone age.

He wrote his own speeches, had a great staff and commanded respect at all times.

People who hate Reagan are gutless cowards who refuse to admit that his accomplishments were far reaching and forever changed the world.

[The Shit Volcano]

I think Reagan was the last President who did not solve every issue by blowing shit up. He actually went and TALKED to people to negotiate (except when he bombed Libya). This is why there were a hell of a lot fewer conflicts when Reagan was in office. And why there wasn't so much bi-partisan bullshit on Capitol Hill.

It seems that every President following Reagan has had a need to blow up, or threaten to blow up, anyone who doesn't agree with America. This, and breed that extremist attitude. It seems that everyone from Bush to Bush (with Clinton in between) has been working in circles just undoing something the last President did, and the country is going in circles.

I am not going to say that Reagan was the best President ever, but he is in the top ten. I may not have agreed with some of the things Reagan did, but he was sincere and believed that what he was doing was right for the country. Sort of like a grandpa in office.

I am sorry that everyone compares him to George W, because I don't think Bush Jr. is a good President at all. He has done nothing to stop the bi-partisan bickering and he seems more interested in his own investments than the American people.

[dave]

To change this thread slightly, I get annoyed when people say that GWB has been the worst president ever. Not because I support him -- ha! -- but because I think he's among the best president ever in terms of effectiveness. While I hate just about everything he has done, I have to admit this: he has done just about everything he wanted to do. So if a president's legacy is judged by how much of his agenda he has accomplished, then GWB wins.

Most destructive president ever? Perhaps. Worst? No, alas for America, he's been really, really good at doing what he wants to do. Well, first term, anyway.

[The Dumpster]

I think it is too soon to judge W. However, as a student of history, it seems to me that no President has ever been effective who ultimately wasn't acting as executor of the popular will. Johnson/Vietnam, Carter/anything, and Clinton/healthcare prove that simply having a congressional majority of your same political party won't save you from bad judgment.

That Reagan was able to accomplish so much on a bipartisan basis proves, not only that he was a political genius, but that he was almost always right.

[Bunga Din]

Ronny (bedtime for bonzo) Regan, let's see, trickle down economics, never worked, arms for hostages to Iran (but the Ayatollah wasn't a radical guy like Saddam), Arms to Iraq (Saddam was a good guy then, he just went bad later), the futile war on drugs and the CIA allowing the contras to smuggle drugs to pay for arms (but it was powder cocaine, not the bad crack, who could imagine someone would come up with crack)....get your head out of the sand Dumpster. The Cold War was going to be over without the waste of "Star Wars (most expensive unsuccessful military spending to date, if you don't count George of the Bungles foray into Iraq.

Your parents were Republican and you never quite learned how to look objectively at what was best for society but what was best for yourself but you are a lawyer and are a master at bending the facts to suit your agenda...care to weigh in on that line CEP?

[The Dumpster]

Your parents were Republican and you never quite learned how to look objectively at what was best for society but what was best for yourself....

Whatever makes you think that, Bunga? My parents were the yellowest of yellow-dog Democrats (my mother is dead, but my Dad still is). They were close personal friends of Jimmy Carter, and visited him in the White House while he was President. I only say that to let you know that you are going to have to find some more principled basis of disagreement than an ad hominem attack on my objectivity. Sorry about that, pal.